The great hope among Leicester fans after our relegation in May was that a dramatic fall from grace would shock the club into life. Maybe, the theory went, getting relegated would be a net positive, allowing us to clear out the people whose decision-making had resulted in that relegation, reset the playing squad, and forge a new path back to the big time.
This hope was almost entirely based on wishful thinking. At no point did anyone at the club communicate a new vision, suggest they had learned anything from what happened, or explain how and why Leicester had ended up both with a) a squad that cost more than any other non-big six team in the Premier League and b) in the Championship.
In fact, at no point did anyone at the club communicate at all, beyond a ghost-written statement from the chairman promising to “reflect on the processes and decisions that have brought us to this point”. This vague promise, famously, translated into zero changes at senior leadership level.
In recent days the extent of the rot at the core of the club has been laid bare for all to see. Leicester are staring at a significant points deduction, whatever league we happen to be in next season, a desperate firesale of talent in the summer, and have suspended the manager of their women’s team pending an investigation into a relationship with one of his players.
Throughout all this the club has issued two statements. One to claim victory over the Football League over an irrelevant technicality, and another to the Guardian pretending that Willie Kirk is “assisting the club in an internal matter”, as if he’s a research assistant loyally helping his boss use Google, rather than the literal manager of the first team under investigation for gross misconduct.
This attempt to stick their, and everyone else’s, heads in the sand is an embarrassment, that speaks to a lack of accountability and a culture of incompetence that runs through the heart of the club.
